News from the Wild & Scenic River Desk

The California State Capitol, Ron Stork

Doing our part for our fellow countrymen: Yes, we have national wild & scenic rivers in California — from the iconic Yosemite rivers to the little-known gems scattered about the state. We are pretty proud of that.

Fortunately, facing the chaos of the Trump Administration and a hostile Congress, there is something that the California legislature can do: if the need arises, we could provide a safe harbor within our very own state wild & scenic rivers system for actively threatened national wild and scenic rivers in California.

We made arrangements to do just that for up to 819 miles of national wild & scenic rivers — if necessary — back in 2018. That legislation expires this year, because no one imagined that President Trump would be back in 2025 pursuing an even more aggressive agenda to dismantle the federal government’s protections for the environment (as well as the capacity to enforce those protections).

But that failure of legislative imagination can be fixed. On March 24, 2025, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee voted 11-0-3 in favor of AB-43 (Nick Schulz, D‑Burbank — and sponsored by FOR) to permanently permit the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency to administratively arrange for that safe harbor.

It was a good day. The committee staff report had explained the bill well and listed 51 organizational supporters, many of whom appeared on a support letter circulated by FOR the Committee had received the previous week. Steve Evans of CalWild and I testified for the bill. The bill was praised by the Committee chair Isaac Bryan, and the vote was taken.

Ron Stork and Steve Evans in the California State Capitol after providing testimony on AB-52.

Of course this is just part of a bill’s journey. The next step is the Assembly Appropriations Committee (often the place that bills go to die, but all must journey through for good or ill). It must then pass the Assembly floor and go through the same process in the state Senate. If there are differences, they must be reconciled. Then the Governor must sign the bill, just like Governor Jerry Brown did in 2018.

You can follow AB‑43’s progress or roadblocks at the top of our website’s wild & scenic river page.

National Capitol, Ron Stork

California and adjacent Oregon national wild & scenic river bills

Confessing that the Times are Difficult: Once again, our three California national wild & scenic river designation bills did not pass in the last (the 118th) Congress. Their prospects for passage and approval by the President in this, the 119th, Congress are dismal.

Our prospects weren’t easy in happier times. Two of the bills’ direct predecessors, one in southern California, the other in the north state, had first been introduced in the 115th Congress, their failures in the 118th Congress representing four consecutive failures. An early predecessor version of the Central Coast bill had first been introduced in the House and Senate in the 114th Congress, thus its 5th consecutive failure.

Smith River, Nate Wilson

The various Oregon Smith River bills did not pass either, the second of two Congresses that had failed to advance the bills to the President. These bills would have expanded the California Smith River National Recreation Area and state and national wild & scenic river into the Smith River adjacent to California and for other purposes.

At this writing, none of the California bills have been reintroduced, but they very well may be. It may take another four years, but quiet persistent work can eventually pay off. Miracles do happen. Even the GOP attitude to such things could change. After all, every U.S. President since the creation of the national wild & scenic rivers system in 1968 has signed Congressional wild & scenic river designation bills.

The Oregon river folks are ahead of the Californians, for the Smith River National Recreation Area Expansion Act (and wild & scenic river bill) has been reintroduced by Oregon’s two U.S. Senators and cosponsored by California’s U.S. Senators. This is probably California's freshman junior U.S. senator, Adam Schiff's, first wild and scenic river bill cosponsorship as a U.S. Senator.

Again, for the latest news and specifics, check out our wild & scenic river page. There you can also find our now 102-page-long wild & scenic river “memo,” which features a lot of the history of national wild & scenic river protection in California.